By Eduardo Nakayama*
Last Sunday, August 6, 2023, the Extraordinary Convention of the PLRA was held, in which six points were to be considered in the agenda. However, a majority of Convention members went further and resolved, when the Convention was already adjourned, the removal of Efraín Alegre as president of the PLRA, generating a political and legal crisis within the party, and also in the national political spectrum due to the accusation of external interference by elements related to the ruling party.
Since the end of the April 30 elections, my public position has been to redirect the Liberal Party towards the future, returning to the roots of liberalism, urging President Efraín Alegre to step aside in the party leadership and facilitate a process of generational change that allows the renewal of the ranks, especially in terms of emerging leadership, overshadowed in recent decades by sterile clashes between internal factions. However, the main movements continued with their radicalized positions, forcing an Extraordinary Convention which, from the beginning, looked more like another chapter in the long dispute between the followers of Efraín Alegre and Blas Llano. Both sectors had proposals not in accordance with the Bylaws, the laws or the National Constitution: the former proposed a call for elections and the latter, the removal of the President from office, when such item was not included in the Agenda and, even if it were included, it was not within the competence of the Convention to do so, since the Bylaws foresee that the Party Electoral Tribunal (Arts. 94-97) is the body in charge of such a matter.
Following our purpose of finding a middle ground between the opposing parties, a group of liberal legislators presented a viable proposal, adjusted to the Party Bylaws and to the prerogatives that an Extraordinary Convention has to “take the resolutions it considers convenient for the best direction of the party and the achievement of its goals” (Art. 31, inc. C), to integrate the Political Committee, the governing body of the PLRA (Art. 14), adding the legislators to an Enlarged Board of Directors to lead the Party towards an institutional solution, which instead of weakening it, strengthens it in the face of the new challenges ahead.
We are in the midst of a chaos that harms the entire opposition and facilitates the takeover of the State by cartism and, what is worse, could cause a new fracture of liberalism in two or three parts, as it happened in 1977. We cannot allow history to repeat itself or the PLRA to surrender to foreign interests, to be controlled or co-opted, as it was in other times
The controversial Extraordinary Convention, called at the request of some members of the Coordinadora de Intendentes Liberales, began with numerous incidents, ranging from the lack of agreement on the venue to be held, to the points to be dealt with in the Agenda, forgetting in addition what is established in Art. 25 of the Bylaws which expressly states that “in no case may the Extraordinary National Convention deal with miscellaneous matters”, while the proposal submitted by Governor Ricardo Estigarribia included a NEW TEXT which, for the first time, expressly mentioned a request for the removal of the President, which suffered from a double insurmountable flaw: on the one hand it intended to add an item not included in the Agenda and on the other hand, requesting a sanction (removal from a party elective office, appealing to Art. 97, paragraph B), whose eventual application corresponds, after the respective process has been substantiated, to the Conduct Tribunal and never to an Extraordinary National Convention, which in any case could deal with the expulsion (not removal from office), in sole instance, if the fact had been included in the Agenda.
My political differences with the efrainismo are notorious and public. At the time, I strongly questioned the decision of said sector to selectively remove members of the Board of Directors who responded to llanismo on May 20, 2020. Therefore, my position in the case of the Extraordinary Convention is not something personal nor does it mean to be in favor of any of the rival parties in the party. My position is only on the side of legality, of what to the best of my knowledge, as a man of law, I interpret as valid or invalid. I am in favor of respect for legality and party institutionalism, principles that are vectors of liberalism and that all democratic parties must observe.
Except for an Impeachment Trial, a figure regulated in the National Constitution but nonexistent (by default) in our Bylaws, no process from which a sanction or penalty may derive may be applied outside the provisions of Art. 17 of the Constitution, which guarantees the procedural rights of citizens. No majority, even if it is qualified or with unanimous vote, can, for example, decree the death penalty of an individual in contravention of the provisions of Art. 4 of the National Constitution. Therefore, the majority that has voted in an irregular manner in a Convention already adjourned by the president of the same, is doubly invalid due to the insurmountable vices expressed above, since with the same criteria of those who continued it, we could think that an Extraordinary Convention could “separate” all the members of the Board of Directors and replace them with alternates, or the entire board of directors, or 51% of the Convention members could “separate” the remaining 49% and replace them with alternates. It is untenable to disregard the principle of sovereignty exercised through the direct vote that elected the authorities.
Efraín Alegre has filed an action before the Electoral Justice denouncing the nullity of what was resolved by those who remained at the end of the Extraordinary Convention. My position is that Efraín Alegre continues to be the legitimate president of the PLRA until such time as a firm and enforceable sentence of the highest judicial instance resolves otherwise.
Today we have a de facto bicephalic situation in the party leadership. This generates unnecessary political and legal chaos, since this irresponsibility may result in a generalized setback in the next municipal elections scheduled for September, where the PLRA is running candidates in a dozen cities.
We are in the midst of a chaos that harms the entire opposition and facilitates the takeover of the State by cartism and, what is worse, could cause a new fracture of liberalism in two or three parts, as it happened in 1977. We cannot allow history to repeat itself or the PLRA to surrender to foreign interests, to be controlled or co-opted, as it was in other times. Now it is up to us to resist by seeking the prevalence of the rule of law. No one can be above the historic Liberal Party, much less above the higher interests of the Republic of Paraguay.
*Eduardo Nakayama, National Senator (PLRA) period 2023-2028. Lawyer (UNA, USAL) and historian (UPF).